Monthly Archives: April 2016

While in the Atacama desert, other travelers had been telling us about the Salar de Uyuni tour (salt flat tour). We weren’t 100% sure that we were going to do it, but after hearing great stories, we decided it had to be done.

After a few obstacles, including a shady tour company, a $160 (each) visa fee for entrance into Bolivia, and almost not being able to access money from the ATM, things were looking bleak. We thought that the trip might actually not happen, especially when the van to pick us up from our hostel did not show up on time. We were ready to accept that possibility.

Once we made it past our final obstacle (the Bolivian border), we met Martín, who was to become our driver and guide for the tour we were about to embark on. What we didn’t know at the time was that this trip would become our favorite experience thus far.

Martín and his Land Cruiser drove six of us (us and our new friends Sarah, Kayla, Nicolas and Angela) through some of the most stunning landscape and terrain we had ever seen.

Cruising through Bolivian desert

The first 2 days included desert terrain, giant rock formations, lagunas, flamingos and chinchillas. We also stayed in a refugio and an actual hotel made of salt!

One of the species of flamingos we saw along the way

The culmination of the trip was the third and final day where we got to see the largest salt flat in the world! The Salar de Uyuni is one of the most breathtaking places on earth you can ever see and experience.

Soaking up the beauty with some amateur ballet

After watching the sunrise over the salt flats and taking a million pictures, we had a few more stops to make. One was a random rock island (Isla Incahuasi) in the middle of the salt flat filled with giant cacti! Another, the Cemetario de trenes, used to be a functional railway for mineral transport since the late 1800’s. Now it sits as an old train graveyard since the 1940’s.

View from the top of Cactus Island

Too cool for the train yard

Check out our photo album for the rest of our pics and watch the video below of our amazing trip!

On our last few days in San Pedro de Atacama, we booked a couple more tours of the surrounding area. One of the tours we ended up doing was el Valle de la Luna tour, which means valley of the moon. The reason it’s called that? You guessed it, it looks similar to the surface of the moon! It was just a couple kilometers away from town.

The rough terrain, sand dunes and multiple colors of the rock give the impression that you are actually on the moon. The only reason you know you are not on the moon is due to the hoards of people and tour buses all around you. Nonetheless it had some of the most interesting landscapes we had ever seen.

Old salt mine equipment from back in the day

Close up of sand/salt/calcium deposits forming the Valle de la Luna

Crazy, cool, funky landscapes

Beautiful moon valley landscape!

It’s incredible how the earth almost designs itself over time. What we see now are as a result of earthquakes, volcanoes, shifting plates and even just wind! Check out these formations!

This formation, the Tres Marias, was carved out over time by strong winds

Amphitheater Rock in Valle de la Luna

Posing in front of the largest sand dune in the Valle de la Luna

Martian-like terrain

We stopped at the famous Coyote Rock to watch the sunset and get some great pics. It was both breathtaking and scary sitting on the tip of the rock overlooking the deep gorge below. It was the perfect finish to the day!

Here we are, teetering on the tip Coyote Rock. Yes, that’s a giant fracture line in the rock.

Valley under Coyote Rock

The next day we had an early morning tour booked. We were told to be outside of our hostel and dressed warmly by 4:30 am. The company didn’t put enough emphasis on “dress warmly” (I’ll get back to that). Our van picked us up and there were a few people inside, half asleep. We eventually picked up a few more people and started the ascent to the Geysers del Tatio.

This geyser field is located at a staggering 4320 meters above sea level, amongst the highest in the world. It also has over 80 active geysers, some just tiny little boiling spurts of water coming from the ground and others up to 18 ft tall. These boiling temperatures can reach up to 185 degrees F – water boils at much lower temperatures at these high altitudes! There were rocks strategically placed around the geysers forming a path that we needed to follow. Around some of the larger geysers, a rock wall had been built for protection of the tourists. Sadly, within the last 6 months, a tourist accidentally fell into one of the larger ones (before the rock wall went up) and didn’t survive.

TwoGirlsFrozen

Geysers everywhere

Water spewing from one of the geysers

We made sure we were really careful walking around the geysers, especially since it was just below freezing and we could not feel our extremities! We were ill prepared in our clothing choice but we had to ignore the cold and enjoy the experience. We were only freezing until the sun came up and when it did, we almost instantly felt better.

It was so cold, our lips turned blue

Jen warming up her hands over a boiling geyser

Hillside geysers

Giant sized steam towers

Posing in front of the “Gringo Eater” geyser – gringos are known to jump in!

Check out the rest of our pics and vids and see the variety of wildlife at these altitudes. There were also some hot springs, which by the way we did not go in… We just couldn’t brave the cold!!